Automatic bag feeding device equipped with an automatic charging device

ABSTRACT

A bag feeding device for an automatic bag charging apparatus includes a stroke lever for extracting an empty bag from a magazine and moving it between two of a plurality of bag receiving ducts. A swing lever mounted on the stroke lever selects one of the two adjacent ducts into which the bag will fall.

United States Patent 1191 Nakashima May 20, 1975 [54] AUTOMATIC BAG FEEDING DEVICE [56] References Cited EQUIPPED WITH AN AUTOMATIC UNITED STATES PATENTS CHARGING DEVICE 2,860,554 ll/I958 Shields 271/64 x 7 hwemor; s i Nakashima, 7 7 Koala 3.091.903 6/[963 Kammerer .1 141/166 X Tenjinmori Oaza Morimoto, 1462,9[7 8/1969 Nakashlma 2|4/8.5 D X Mukomachi, Kyoto, Japan [22] Filed; 151 1973 Primary Examiner-Richard E. Aegerter 2 1 332 731 7 Assistant Examiner-Frederick R. Schmidt Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Kurt Kelman [30] Foreign Application Priority Data Feb. 19, 1972 Japan .1 47-017326 57 ABSTRACT Mar. 27, A ag fee g e i for n automatic g harg ng i apparatus includes a stroke lever for extracting an [52] zg fi f i /fgg: empty bag from a magazine and moving it between two of a plurality of bag receiving ducts. A swing lever {g 2 mounted on the stroke lever selects one of the two ad- Nil/165,166,168, 313-3l7; 53/187, 188, I90, 386; 2I4/l BT, 8.5 A, 8.5 D; 271/5, I4, 30 A, 64, 90, 99, 102, I07

jacent ducts into which the bag will fall.

3 Claims, 15 Drawing Figures PATENTEDmvzo ms 3. 884.278

sum 10$ 7 Fig 3 PATENTED MAY 20 I975 WEN 88F 7 1 AUTOMATIC BAG FEEDING DEVICE EQUIPPED WITH AN AUTOMATIC CHARGING DEVICE This invention relates to an automatic bag feeding device interconnected with a mechanism for automatically charging a bag with a predetermined amount of material. In this system, a bag pulling mechanism is adapted to take out each bag one at a time from a bag magazine, in which plurality of folded bags are stacked as shown in FIG. 1. Each bag is adapted, in response to a signal provided by a device for automatically charging a predetermined amount of material into said bag, to be delivered into any one of plurality of bag receiving ducts disposed at a position corresponding to and above a plurality of charging blow nozzles, and then the bag with the charging inlet opened, is made to swing vertically downward to position the inlet on the charging blow nozzle.

The device according to this invention will now be explained with reference to an illustrative example as shown in drawings, in which;

FIG. I is a perspective view of a bag, to which this invention is applicable,

FIG. 2 is a front view of an Automatic Bag Feeding Device equipped with an Automatic Package Bag Charging Device according to this invention.

FIG. 3 is a side view of the same,

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of shared bag receiving ducts utilized in the device according to this invention,

FIG. 5 is a side view of the same,

FIG. 6 is a front view of the Automatic Package Bag Charging Device utilized in this invention,

FIG. 7 is a plane view of the same,

FIG. 8 is a schematical illustration of the sequential operation of the Automatic Package Bag Charging Device utilized in this invention,

FIG. 9 is a front view of another type of bag utilized in the device according to this invention,

FIG. 10 is a plane view of the same,

FIG. I I through FIG. 13 are schematical illustrations of the sequential operation of the bag shown in FIG. 9,

FIG. 14 is a side view of the Automatic Package Bag Charging Device for the bag shown in FIG. 9 and,

FIG. 15 is a plane view of the same.

A bag I suitable for use in the device according to this invention has, as shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 9, a bag charging inlet 2 at a corner thereof and is usually folded flat for convenience of storage and packaging thereof.

As may be seen in FIG. 2, in which is shown a general front view of one example of the device according to this invention, and in FIG. 3, in which the side view of the same is shown, the device comprises a bag magazine 3, into which a stack of empty bags is deposited, a bag pulling mechanism 4 for pulling out the bags one by one, from said magazine, a bag receiving duct means 5 and an automatic bag charging device (element 6 in FIG. 6 and element 69 in FIG. 15).

The automatic bag feeding device 92 comprises the bag magazine 3', the bag pulling mechanism 4 and the shared bag receiving duct 5.

The above-mentioned elements will now be described in detail. i. The bag magazine The bag magazine 3 is adapted to receive a stack of bags so positioned that the bag charging inlet 2 provided at one corner thereof will be at the bottom right side as shown in FIG. 3. Bag retainers 8,8 are provided at the exit side 7 of the bag magazine 3, from which side the bags may be taken out one by one. The stack of bags 9 in the bag magazine is biased towards the exit side 7 with a predetermined pressure by means of a suitable device (not shown) positioned at the side opposite to the exit side 7, as shown by arrow in FIG. 2.

ii. The bag receiving ducts As may be seen in FIGS. 4 and 5, the ducts are designed to receive the bags as they fall down from above, and are comprised of left-, right-and center bag receiv ing ducts 10, I1 and 12, respectively and guiding tap plates (simply referred to bag guide plates) 13 through 16. Adjacent guide plates l3, l4 and 15, 16 are joined at their upper edges to make common ridges l7 and IS, the lower edge 19 of the bag guide plate I3 is joined to the left bag receiving duct 10, the lower edges 20, 21 of the bag guide plate I4, 15 are respectively joined to the center bag receiving duct 11, and the lower edge 22 of the bag guide plate 16 is joined to the right bag re ceiving duct 12. Each bag receiving duct 10, 11 or I2 is thus defined by both of its side walls 23 and 24, 25 and 26, and 27 and 28, respectively keeping a distance I therebetween suitable to adequately receive a bag therein, a portion at the bottom right corner of each side wall being cut out at 29 for the charging inlet of the bag.

As shown in FIG. 2, each of the bag receiving ducts is disposed along line A-A, B-B or CC, respectively, in the same vertical plane as the axis of a respective charging blow nozzle 30, 31 or 32, just above said blow nozzles. The nozzles are disposed adjacent each other in front of the device for automatically charging a predetermined amount of material into the bag. Stoppers 36, 36 are provided at the bag discharge outlets 33, 34 or 35 at the bottom of the bag receiving ducts 10, II or 12, for preventing bags from passing through the duct when made to fall into that duct (see the broken line depicted in FIG. 5). Further, a flat spring 37, the upper end of which is pivoted on a pin 40, is provided at a position adjacent to the bottom side 39 of each bag receiving duct, the duct bottom facing against the bottom side 38 of the bag therein. If a bag fallen into the bag receiving duct, the flat spring 37 is caused to swing from the solid line position, along the arrow, to the dotted line position to make the bag supported on the stoppers 36, 36 advance up to a position where the upper side 41 of the bag abuts the pins 42, 42, which define the position of the bag, whereby the bag is precisely disposed at a predetermined position within the bag receiving duct. (FIG. 3). Flat spring 37 may be caused to swing by any of a number of well known detection devices available to the art. For example, either mechanical or electrical sensors may be placed as desired to sense the presence of a bag in the bag receiving duct. Once a bag is sensed to be in position a signal is relayed to means which cause the flat spring 37 to pivot. These various elements, although not shown, will be readily apparent to persons of the art using commercially available sensors or the like in association with spring pivot devices.

iii. The bag pulling mechanism This mechanism consists of a bag pulling out lever 43, a guide bar 44 and an air cylinder 45. The lever 43 consists ofa mounting plate 48 secured to the end portion 47 of the cylinder rod 46 of the above cylinder, and a swingable arm 49 pivotally connected at 50 to said mounting plate 48, which is adapted to perform a reciprocation in the direction of arrows a,a', together with the cylinder rod 46, along the guide bar 44, when the air cylinder 45 is operated, said guide bar 44 being mounted horizontally above the bag magazine 3. The swingable arm 49 is provided with a pair of vacuum cups 51 directed against the front side of the bag magazine 3, and the mounting plate 48 is provided with an air cylinder 53 having an operating rod 52, the end of which is pivotally connected at 55 with a connecting piece 54 fixed on said swingable arm 49, so that, when the air cylinder 53 is actuated sequentially upon command from any of a number of available means in the art such as mechanical gears, electrical or photoelectrical switches, not shown to shift the operating rod 52, the swingable arm 49 will be turned around the pivot 50 to displace from the solid line position to the dotted line position (b) as depicted in FIG. 2. The bag conducting lever 43 with its swingable arm 49 vertically directed (as in the solid line position shown in FIG. 2) will first perform a horizontal movement as shown by an arrow a towards the exit end 7 of the bag magazine 3, and the vacuum suction cups 51, 51 mounted on the swingable arm 49 of said conducting lever 43 will be actuated, i.e. vacuum is applied to suck the side surface 56 of the bag I which is positioned foremost of the exit end of the bag magazine 3. Then the swingable arm 49 holding a bag as above will move opposite to the previous movement, or towards the direction shown with an arrow a, to arrive at a predetermined point above the bag receiving ducts 5. The operation of the vacuum cups 51 is then terminated to release the bag, which will fall down along the bag guide plate into a predetermined bag receiving duct. In the fashion described, the bag pulling mechanism may be constructed using available means known to the art to move in the direction of arrow a such that the bags are sequentially discharged to fall into a vacant duct 10, II or 12. When vacuum cups 51 contact a bag, vacuum is applied and maintained until a bag is discharged to a vacant duct, the time of applied vacuum being controlled as desired by any suitable scheme. Sequential operation of the swingable arm 49 and piston 45 may be programmed by either mechanical or electrical means, not shown, to achieve necessary movement illustrated.

Upon the displacement of the swingable arm 49 carrying a bag in the direction of arrow the stroke of the bag conducting lever 43 may be either one step longer or shorter, that is to say, the bag conducting lever 43 may be stopped at point P1 or P2, which are located at a position somewhat before the separating ridges 17 or 18 of the bag guide plates above the bag receiving ducts 5, as the follows:

I. If a bag is released with the bag conducting lever 43 stopped at point P1, the bag will slide down along the bag guide plate 13 towards the left bag receiving duct to be received therein,

2. If, having stopped at P1, the air cylinder 53 is actuated to make the swingable arm 49 turn counter clockwise to be positioned as the dotted lines indicate in FIG. 2 and a bag is released, then the bag will slide down along the bag guide plate 14 towards the center bag receiving duct 11 to be received therein,

3. If the bag conducting lever 43 is made to stop at point P2, corresponding to a position somewhat before the separating ridge 18, the bag may be released to slide down along the bag guide plate 15 to be received into the center bag receiving duct 11.

4. If, having stopped at P2, the air cylinder 53 is actuated to make the swingable arm 49 turn counter clockwise to be positioned as shown in FIG. 2 and a bag is released, then the bag will slide down along the bag guide plate 16 towards the right bag receiving duct 12 to be received therein. When a bag is received into a duct, the charging inlet 2 of the bag will be positioned at the bottom right corner of the duct to be exposed through the cut out 29 thereof (see FIGS. 3 and 5).

Further, the operations (l through (4) are performed, or not, according to whether a control signal is applied or not, which control signal would be furnished by the device for automatically charging a bag with a predetermined amount of material. The control signal for charging may be either mechanical such as a weight activated means, or electrical such as photosensors, i.e. available devices to the art not shown, which detect the presence of a bag at the blow nozzle location. Once the bag is in proper position, material is then discharged until a desired amount is within the bag at which time discharge is terminated using for example a weight activated means. Conveniently, the control signal for the charging operation may be used, if desired, to activate, in programmed sequence, the swing controlling device. All of these details of construction are available and known by skilled artisans in the auto matic bag filling devices.

Further, if the bag 1 is opened at the charging inlet by any suitable device, for example, suction cups 57 provided on the automatic bag charging device as will be explained hereinafter with reference to FIG. 6, and is thereby held in position, and the stoppers 36, 36 is removed by a suitable device (not shown), and at the same time the bag holder lever of the automatic package bag charging device is operated, the bag I will rotate by within the vertical plane thereof along an arcuate arrow C with the bag charging inlet 2 opened, as may be seen in FIGS. 3 and 6. The opened charging inlet 2 will then be put on the charging blow nozzle 30 (31, 32) at the main body 58 of the device, while the bottom side 38 of the bag will be laid on a bag receiving stand 59 in front of the main body 58, thereby to be packed through said charging blow nozzle with material.

Thus, the invention comprises a device for automatically feeding bags coupled to an arrangement for charging each of the bags with a predetermined amount of material, the latter having a swingable arm on a bag conducting lever mechanism which is adapted to take out bags, one after another, from a bag magazine and divide them into two or more classes, making them fall into a plurality of bag receiving ducts preparatory to charging, as above. The bag conducting lever mechanism is provided with a stroke controlling device and a swing controlling device mounted thereon, whereby a longer or a shorter stroke may be optionally selected. and, when the bag conducting lever mechanism is stopped, the swingable arm of said conducting lever mechanism is operated, or not, in accordance with a control signal whereby the bag receiving duct right or left to the ridge that separates the ways to two adjacent bag receiving ducts is selected to make the bag fall thereinto.

iv. Automatic bag charging device a. The device for automatically charging a bag, the details of which are illustrated in plan and elevation in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7, respectively, is disposed above, and corresponding to, the charging blow nozzle on the main body of the device, as shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3,

wherein bag holder levers having a set of suction cups are opened and closed. Then. the bag is made to swing through 90 vertically downwards. and the bag charging inlet is moved proximate the charging blow nozzle located at a position in the swinging locus.

The construction of the automatic bag charging device and the function thereof will now be described:

1. If. by aid of the bag pulling mechanism, a bag 1 is caused to fall from the bag magazine down into the bag receiving duct to be disposed at a predetermined position (as illustrated in front view and in side view in FIG. 8a and 80, respectively), the automatic bag charging device 6 will be operated around axis 60 of an operating frame 91 such that the bag holder arms 61 and bag inlet opening arms 62 will swing upwardly within a vertical plane with levers opened (as illustrated in front view and in side view in FIG. 8b and 8b).

2. The bag inlet opening arms 62 hold the bag at a position adjacent to the bag charging inlet 2 by means of a pair of vacuum cups 57 communicating with a suction pipe 63 (see FIG. 8c).

3. The bag charging inlet is opened outwardly through an angle SUffiCIElllI to open it wide enough to change the bag 1, the bag inlet opening arms 62 being stopped at this time (see FIG. 8d).

4. Then the bag holder arms 61 are closed to hold the bag therebetween. two grasping elements 64, 64' provided on the end portion of each bag holder arm 61 engaging the bag from both sides (see FIG. 8e), and at the same time the effect of the stoppers 36 in the bag receiving duct will be removed by making the stoppers 36 shift out of the way by suitable means.

5. Finally. the automatic bag charging device 6, with the bag retained therein, is caused to swing vertically downward around the axis 60, whereby the bag 1 is put on the charging blow nozzle 30 (31, 32) which, as previously discussed, is disposed at a position on the swinging locus of the bag charging device 6 so that the bottom side 38 of the bag is placed on the bag receiver stand 59 and charging of the blow nozzle is started. Now, in the course of charging, the bag will be released from the bag holder arms 61 as well as from the bag inlet opening arms 62. The automatic bag charging device 6 with both pair of bag holder arms 61, 62 opened outwards will make an upward swing to restore themselves to the previous position, where another bag has just been taken out from the bag magazine and is standing ready at P1 or P2 for the next operation that will follow in the sequence (1 to (5) as stated above. The next step of operation may be started after a control signal has been given which indicates the satisfactory completion of charging of the preceding bag.

The device according to this invention, as explained above. is so arranged that, after the bag charging inlet is opened by the vacuum cups mounted on the bag opening arms the bag is held at two positions, with upper and lower portions of the bag adjacent to the bag charging inlet in order to maintain the opening configuration of the bag charging inlet and, accordingly, even if the vacuum cups fail to attach to the surface of a bag to release the bag, the configuration of the opened bag charging inlet will be maintained so that the bag will be put over the charging blow nozzle by aid of the bag holder arms.

As stated above. the device according to this invention is equipped with two pairs of bag holder arms, one pair of which is provided with a vacuum cup on each arm for the purpose of opening the charging inlet of the bag, and the other pair of which is designed to hold the bag therebetween at the bag charging inlet to keep it opened, whereby retention ofa bag is assured by virtue of the cooperation of both pairs of bag holder arms. Further, the configuration of the opened bag charging inlet is not changed. even if malfunctioning of the vac uum cup occurs, thereby ensuring insertion of the charging blow nozzle into the bag. At the same time, the bag is held by the bag holder arms 61 together with the bag inlet opening arms, so that the charging blow nozzle may advantageously be inserted forcefully into the bag charging inlet, overcoming any frictional resistance that may be expected on the inserting motion thereof.

Now an explanation will be given of the operation of the automatic charging device 69 in connection with another type of bag which is shown in a front view and a plan view in FIGS. 9 and 10, respectively. In this case the bag is provided with a charging inlet 2 at a corner thereof, and is adapted to be folded flat by folding the top surface 65 and bottom surface 66 along the upper crease 67 and lower crease 68, respectively, parallel to the side 56.

In a manner illustrated in FIG. 2, bags are taken out from the bag magazine one after another by the bag conducting lever 43. A plurality of bags are stacked in the magazine, and each bag falls into a bag receiving duct and then, in a manner illustrated in FIGS. 11 through 15, the bag charging inlet is opened by the automatic bag charging device, and is caused to swing vertically downwards to put the opened bag charging inlet on the charging blow nozzle.

As shown in detail by FIGS. 14 and 15, the automatic package bag charging device 69, which is rotatably supported on a pivot secured to the main body of the de vice 58, is comprised of a pair of bag grasping levers 70, 71 and a holder 73 including a suction cylinder 72 for opening the bag charging inlet. The holder 73 supports the pair of bag grasping levers 70, 71 while keeping a suitable gap therebetween. The bag grasping levers 70, 71 are gear coupled to be displaced along the arrows B, B against each other about the holder 73 so that the flat ends 75, 75 abut each other by means of the torque actuator 74 driven by an hydraulic, pneumaticor electric motor. One of the bag grasping levers 70 is provided with a pusher lever 77 rotatably connected at 76 to the bag grasping lever 70, and one end 78 of said pusher lever 77 is angularly bent. The other end 79 of lever 77 is rotatably connected with the end 79 of the operating rod 82 of a pneumatic cylinder 81, which is pivotally mounted at 80 on the bag grasping lever 70, so that the pusher lever 77 will make a rotating motion in the direction of an arrow C, when the cylinder 81 is actuated. Further, the operating rod 84 having a vacuum suction cup 83 at the end thereof is adapted to reciprocate towards the arrow D-D' in accordance with the actuation of the suction cylinder 72.

The holder 73, equipped with a pair of bag grasping levers 70, 71 and the suction cylinder 72 for opening the bag charging inlet is supported at both sides thereof by the rotating axle 85 secured to the machine body of the automatic package bag feeding device, and is adapted to turn around the rotating axle 85 in a vertical plane by means of a suitable torque source thereby to have the bag 1 rotated in the direction of arrow E-E in FIG. 14. The holder 73 is understood to have been first prepared for bag removal by the bag grasping levers 70, 71 having been made to open by and angle a, as shown by chain lines (e) in FIGS. 14 and 15.

The automatic bag charging device operates as follows:

l. A bag having fallen into the bag receiving duct is held stationary by the stoppers.

2. The automatic bag charging device 69, which has been standing by in the state shown by the dotted lines (e) in FIG. 14, is made to turn 90 upwards along the direction of the arrow E around the rotating axle 85 to arrive at the position shown by the solid lines, and then the bag grasping levers 70, 71 are made to turn towards each other in the direction of arrows B and 8, whereby the ends of both levers grasp the bag located at the center line A-A at portions adjacent to the bag charging inlet (see FIGS. 14 and 15). One ridge 86 of the flat end 90 of the bag grasping lever 70 is disposed near the upper crease 67 of the bag charging inlet 2 of the bag 3. The pneumatic cylinder 81 provided on the bag grasping lever 70 is then actuated, so that the pusher lever 77 will turn through the action of the operating rod 82 in the direction of the arrow d, whereby the bent end 78 of the pusher lever 77 will push the upper half 87 of the top surface 65 of the bag (the portion enclosed by the chain lines in FIG. 9). The top surface 65 will thereby turn towards the arrow F (see FIG. ll-b and FIG. l) so that the whole of the top surface of the bag 1 will arrive at a position where it has been turned by 90 at the upper crease 67 with respect to the surface of the bag (chain line position 88 in FIG.

4. With the bag kept as above, the suction cylinder 72 in holder 73 acts along the arrow D against the top surface of the bag, and the vacuum cup 83 at the distant end of the operating rod 84 attracts the bag at a portion 89 in the top surface 65 in the vicinity of the bag charging inlet 2. The operating rod 84 will then move back towards D (opposite to D), so that the bag charging inlet 2 is maintained in an opened state, as shown in FIGS. 12, I3 and I4.

5. Following the above, the stoppers 36, 36 at the bottom of the bag receiving duct are moved to terminate the arresting effect which, at the same time, the automatic bag charging device will hold the bag at both sides thereof by means of the bag grasping levers 70, 71 and the vacuum cup 83 of the suction cylinder 72 is caused to attract the portion of the bag in the vicinity of the bag charging inlet. The holder 73 is then actuated by any suitable torque source to rotate around the rotating axle 85 in the direction of the arrow B to put the opened bag charging inlet 2 on the charging blow nozzle 30, with the bottom 66 of the bag laid on the bag receiver stand 59 of the device 58.

6. Then, the bag grasping levers 70, 71 are made to turn along the arrow B (opposite to the arrow B), a suitable opening angle a being maintained therebetween as seen in FIG. [5. At the same time the suction cylinder 72 will relieve the action of the vacuum suction cup 83, and the operating rod 84 will also retract along the arrow D to restore the original position, and, a similar charging step follows for another bag, using the charging blow nozzle 30 (31, 32).

Thus a cycle of bag charging will be completed through steps l through (6). Operation of the various parts of the present apparatus may be effected by conventionally available sequence control means, not illustrated, but well known to the art. For example, electrical signals through electro-magnetic valves using compressed air supplied from a source of compressed air for air torque actuators, such as air cylinders or rotary air torque actuators, induce necessary reciprocating linear, pivotal or rotary movements of the various elements, the performance of which has been described herein. Also, conventionally available vacuum sources, where applicable, herein, are used.

What we claim is:

I. In an apparatus for automatically feeding bags and for charging the bags by bag charging means with a predetermined amount of material, which comprises a magazine for the bags, a bag conducting mechanism for taking successive ones of the bags from the magazine and including a plurality of bag receiving ducts for receiving the bags preparatory to charging the improvement which comprises in combination: (1) stroke means associated with said bag conducting mechanism, said stroke means disposed for reciprocal horizontal movement; (2) swing means pivotally mounted on said stroke means, said swing means having bag engaging means for selectively removing a bag from the magazine or for releasing a bag above the bag receiving ducts, means for moving said swing means to selectively alter the bag position over the bag receiving ducts, and (3) said ducts having means for conducting a freely falling bag upon release from the swing means to one of the plurality of bag receiving ducts.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an automatic bag charging mechanism which includes (1) a frame rotatably mounted about a fixed axis; (2) a first pair of arms, each having a vacuum cup, fastened to said frame for receiving a bag from said receiving duct, said bag having an aperture therein for the filling thereof, said vacuum cup maintaining said aperture open; (3) a second pair of arms fastened to said frame for further gripping said bag; (4) a bagcharging blow nozzle attached to said frame for filling said bag; and (5) means for rotating said frame about said axis to cause said blow nozzle to enter said opened aperture, said second pair of arms engaging said bag proximate said blow nozzle to maintain the shape of the bag during filling.

3. The apparatus according to claim I further comprising an automatic bag charging mechanism which includes (l) a bag-charging blow nozzle; 2) a holder mounted above said blow nozzle; (3) a pair of rotatably mounted bag-grasping levers mounted on said holder for retrieving a bag from said duct and passing a retrieved bag to the vicinity of said nozzle, said baggrasping levers disposed for grasping said bag on opposite sides thereof in the vicinity of a bag opening disposed to receive the bag-charging blow nozzle; 4) a pusher lever mounted on said holder for folding back an end of said bag along the bag opening for closing the opening; (5) a vacuum cup mounted on an operating rod on said holder, said vacuum cup maintaining the charging inlet of said bag open to receive said charging nozzle; and (6) means for rotating said bag-grasping levers through an angle of approximately to cause said nozzle to enter said charging inlet whereby said bag is filled. 

1. In an apparatus for automatically feeding bags and for charging the bags by bag charging means with a predetermined amount of material, which comprises a magazine for the bags, a bag conducting mechanism for taking successive ones of the bags from the magazine and including a plurality of bag receiving ducts for receiving the bags preparatory to charging the improvement which comprises in combination: (1) stroke means associated with said bag conducting mechanism, said stroke means disposed for reciprocal horizontal movement; (2) swing means pivotally mounted on said stroke means, said swing means having bag engaging means for selectively removing a bag from the magazine or for releasing a bag above the bag receiving ducts, means for moving said swing means to selectively alter the bag position over the bag receiving ducts, and (3) said ducts having means for conducting a freely falling bag upon release from the swing means to one of the plurality of bag receiving ducts.
 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an automatic bag charging mechanism which includes (1) a frame rotatably mounted about a fixed axis; (2) a first pair of arms, each having a vacuum cup, fastened to said frame for receiving a bag from said receiving duct, said bag having an aperture therein for the filling thereof, said vacuum cup maintaining said aperture open; (3) a second pair of arms fastened to said frame for further gripping said bag; (4) a bag-charging blow nozzle attached to said frame for filling said bag; and (5) means for rotating said frame about said axis to cause said blow nozzle to enter said opened aperture, said second paiR of arms engaging said bag proximate said blow nozzle to maintain the shape of the bag during filling.
 3. The apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising an automatic bag charging mechanism which includes (1) a bag-charging blow nozzle; (2) a holder mounted above said blow nozzle; (3) a pair of rotatably mounted bag-grasping levers mounted on said holder for retrieving a bag from said duct and passing a retrieved bag to the vicinity of said nozzle, said bag-grasping levers disposed for grasping said bag on opposite sides thereof in the vicinity of a bag opening disposed to receive the bag-charging blow nozzle; (4) a pusher lever mounted on said holder for folding back an end of said bag along the bag opening for closing the opening; (5) a vacuum cup mounted on an operating rod on said holder, said vacuum cup maintaining the charging inlet of said bag open to receive said charging nozzle; and (6) means for rotating said bag-grasping levers through an angle of approximately 90* to cause said nozzle to enter said charging inlet whereby said bag is filled. 